The Early Years: A Minerva McGonagall Story
by Lyra Silvertongue
Summary: Okay, so I can't do titles (lol), but this story is basically about Minerva's first years teaching, when she's just sorta a rookie. It's pretty bad so far, but I'm writing more chapters to make it better!


Minerva stuffed the last of her robes into her suitcase and zipped it up, sighing with relief when she finished. She was starting her first day of teaching at Hogwarts the next day, and she was as nervous as could be. "Why should I be nervous?" Minerva muttered to herself. "They're just kids! I was a kid once! I have nothing to worry about." She continued to say this to herself over and over, trying to make herself believe it.  
Suddenly, she heard a knock on her door. "Minnie, you done packing?" a voice called. Minerva grinned. The voice was that of her very best friend and roommate, Eileen McEntire.   
"Yeah, I'm done, Eileen," she called. "Come on in!"   
Eileen opened the door and walked in. She was a red-haired, rosy-cheeked girl who usually had a broad smile on her face, but looked quite downcast at that moment. "Minnie..I gonna miss you," she said, sniffling a little.   
"Come here," said Minerva. Eileen walked over to her, and Minerva hugged her friend tightly. "I'm gonna miss you too, Eileen, but I'll come back to visit! And you can come see me at Hogwarts!"  
Eileen nodded. "I know, but it's just not the same, Min," she replied, sighing. "You're gonna be a great professor, though, I know it, Miss Head Girl-Top-of-Every-Class-Valedictorian-McGonagall!"   
Minerva laughed. "I hope so..but Eileen, I'm so scared! What if they hate me!! What if I can't do it?"  
Eileen looked at Minerva kindly. "Don't be stupid, Minnie, you're gonna be fine. As for them hating you, the girls might, 'cause all their boyfriends will be nuts about you!"  
Minerva shook her head. "Nope, I already solved that problem." She pulled her long, wavy black hair into a bun, slid on her square-shaped glasses, and arranged her face in a stern position.   
Eileen gaped at her, then laughed. "You're bloody brilliant, ya know that? You look every day of thirty-five, and you're only twenty-two!"  
Minerva took off the glasses and let her hair down. "Yep, I figured that out as soon as I got the job. It wouldn't do at all to have students mooning over me, now would it?" Her voice had a joking tone to it as she spoke.  
Minerva and Eileen spent the rest of the night talking and crying. They stayed up till five in the morning, reminiscing and sobbing. Finally, Minerva managed to drift off to sleep.  
  
The next morning, Minerva woke up at 6 AM (after only an hour of sleep). She dressed into her favorite green robe, then studied her face in the mirror. In her reflection, she saw a tall, beautiful raven-haired girl of 22, far too youthful-looking to be a professor. She then took a hair ribbon out of her drawer and tied her hair up into a bun. She put on her glasses and made the strictest face she could, and she transformed before her own eyes into a stern, professional-looking teacher of Transfiguration.  
After a tearful farewell with Eileen, Minerva Apparated to the street that Hogwarts was on. She walked down the road until she reached the massive school building. Taking a deep breath, she walked to the door and opened it.   
Luckily, Minerva remembered her way around the school, so she easily found her way to the Headmaster's office. After saying the password, she entered Dumbledore's office.   
Professor Dumbledore looked up from his papers and smiled at the new arrival. "Welcome, Minerva! Are you ready to start teaching?"  
"I am, Professor," Minerva responded.   
Dumbledore nodded with approval. "Very good...Professor Sprout will show you to your office. Good luck to you, Minerva!"  
Professor Sprout gestured for Minerva to follow her. "This way, m'dear," she said kindly. She'd been Minerva's own Herbology teacher, and Professor Sprout had a soft spot for the clever young woman. After a long walk down the corridors, Professor Sprout stopped in front of a door. "Here it is, Minerva. The students will arrive at about six o'clock tonight, so you have plenty of time to get ready, my dear," she said  
"Thank you, Professor," Minerva said as Professor Sprout departed. She looked around her office with a critical eye. It was awfully dreary..she needed to put some life into it. She reached into one of her boxes and took out a photograph of herself and her friends, back when they were in their sixth year. Smiling, Minerva put it on her desk. "Much better," she whispered.  
  
  
Finally, the moment of truth arrived: the student's arrival. Minerva walked down to the Great Hall, nervously, where Professor Dumbledore gestured to an empty seat at his right. She lowered herself into the chair, watching the students sit at their tables. She recognized several of them as her own classmates, first and second years when she was a seventh year. Molly Edwards, Arthur Weasley, Amos Diggory...and, unfortunately, the incorrigible Lucius Malfoy, that irritating little Slytherin brat. All of the aforesaid students were now in their seventh year, and they weren't looking so small anymore.  
Minerva smiled over at the Gryffindor table, wondering if Molly Edwards would recognize her. The red-headed Molly had been a special pet with Eileen and Minerva, back in Molly's first and second years. "Oh well," thought Minerva, "she'll remember me when classes start." She also glanced over at the Slytherin table, noticing that Lucius Malfoy wasn't half as scrawny as she'd remembered him. "He's probably gotten even worse now that he's older," thought Minerva with disgust. "Well, if he thinks he's gonna pull any of his crap with me, he's got another thing coming, that detestable little weasel."  
After the feast, Minerva retired back to her office, which had a small bedroom attached to it. She took her hair out of the bun (the hairpins had been hurting her head), removed her glasses (which weren't really terribly necessary for her vision), and lay down on her bed, staring up at the ceiling, wondering what she was going to say to her students at their first lesson the next day. After lying awake for many hours, Minerva finally drifted off to sleep.  
  
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When Minerva woke up that morning, a wave of nervousness and anxiety instantly washed over her. Would she be any good at this teaching stuff? The question echoed in her mind over and over as she got dressed. When she was finished, she looked in the mirror. "Perfect," she thought. "I look every day of thirty-five." She knew that it would never do for her younger students to know that she was just 22. There wasn't much to be done about the older ones recognizing her, she realized with disappointment.  
"Oh well," she said to herself, "they'll soon see that I'm not someone to mess with." She walked down to the Great Hall for breakfast, her spirits somewhat lifted. She took her seat beside Professor Dumbledore, and looked around the table. She frowned deeply, noticing that every teacher there looked quite a bit older than her. "They probably think I'm too young to be doing this," she thought miserably. She let her eyes wander over to the student tables. She saw Lucius Malfoy look over at her and whisper something to Narcissa Dellamonica, who was seated beside him. Narcissa looked over at Minerva also, then whispered something back to Lucius.  
Minerva stifled the urge to stick her tongue out at that rat-faced little scumbag, but remembered in time that she was a teacher, not an immature child.   
After breakfast, Minerva went down to her classroom to get things ready for the first lesson. After setting things up, she paced around her classroom nervously, thinking of what to say to the students. She walked to the front of the room and faced the empty desks. Clearing her throat, she said, "Good morning, class, my name is Min--I mean, my name is Prof--Professor McGonagall." The words sounded very strange to her, so she repeated them. "Professor McGonagall.." Suddenly, she started laughing. She looked over at the picture of Eileen that she had on her desk, and said, "Eileen, what would you say if you saw me now?"   
Suddenly, she heard footsteps and childish voices approaching her classroom. She quickly stopped laughing and glanced out the door at her second-year class, who were her first class of the day. The students filed through, some of them glancing curiously at the new Transfiguration teacher. "Take your seats, please," Minerva said, slightly nervously. The students did so rather nicely, except for two dark-haired boys in the back row, who were laughing and talking quite loudly, heedless of the silence in the classroom. "Are you quite finished, gentlemen?" Minerva snapped, quite annoyed at the boys for ignoring her.  
"Yes Ma'am, we're quite finished," one of the boys said cheerily, turning to face Minerva and folding his hands angelically on the desk.   
"We're quite sorry, Professor, do carry on," the other boy said, a roguish grin on his face as he mimicked his friend's innocent position.  
"Very well then," Minerva said, "let me introduce myself. My name is Professor McGonagall, and I'll be your Transfiguration teacher." She felt quite relieved after saying this, for she'd been worried that she'd introduce herself as "Minerva." She unraveled her roll sheet and began to call out names. The first two students meekly raised their hands when their name was called. When she called out "Black, Sirius!", the dark-haired boy who'd first spoken saluted her and said "Aye-aye, Cap'n!"   
Minerva stifled her urge to laugh by saying, "That will be all, Mr. Black." She looked down at the next name on her roll sheet. "Evans, Lily!" A pretty red-headed girl said meekly, "Here, Professor." Minerva looked up from her roll sheet at the small girl. The child looked very shy and meek, and looking at her, Minerva thought back to herself on the Hogwarts Express that first day, before she'd met Eileen. Her heart went out to Lily Evans, and she gave the girl a small smile before moving on.   
After calling a few names, she reached "Lupin, Remus!". When she called that name, a sandy-haired lad called out "That's me, Professor!" The two dark-haired boys laughed, and the one called Sirius Black muttered "Marauder number three." Minerva had no idea what that meant, but, judging from the glint in Sirius's eye, she figured it was something against the rules.   
The two boys did the same thing with "Pettigrew, Peter!" Then, finally, she came to "Potter, James!". The second dark haired boy shouted, "The one and only!" The whole class laughed, and the red-haired girl, Lily Evans, glanced back and smiled at James Potter, who winked back at her. Minerva noticed the girl flush red when she turned around. By the end of the lesson, Minerva had become quite attached to the Marauder gang and little Lily Evans, and was looking forward to teaching them.  
  
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Finally, the moment of truth came: double seventh-year Transfiguration with Slytherin and Gryffindor. As the students filed in, she caught a glimpse of Molly Edwards, who was whispering to her best friend, Bridget MacClaren. Minerva smiled merrily as the 7th years came in, for not one of them recognized her, although Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Dellamonica looked at her curiously as they entered.  
When the students sat down, Minerva said, "Good morning, students, my name is Professor McGonagall, and I will be your Transfiguration professor this year." After she finished, she saw Molly raise her hand. "Yes?" Minerva said.  
"Professor, are you in any way related to Minerva McGonagall?" she asked, a curious gleam in her blue eyes. Lucius Malfoy leaned forward in his seat, apparently quite curious to hear her answer as well. Minerva laughed, and taking off her glasses, said, "What do you think, Molly?" Molly's jaw dropped, as did Bridget's, Narcissa's, and the whole rest of the class, except for Lucius, who leaned back in his seat triumphiantly.  
After the lesson, Molly and Bridget ran up to Minerva. "Minnie! You're a professor now?" asked Molly incredulously.   
Minerva smiled. "Yes, I am. I've missed the two of you very much. How are you?"  
"We're fine," answered Bridget, eyes wide. Molly hugged Minerva warmly. "We missed you too, Minnie!!"   
Minerva disengaged herself from Molly, saying, "Girls, you have to call me Professor McGonagall now, not Minnie. If you call me Minerva, then the underclassmen will too, and that won't be good for my teaching career..you understand, don't you?"  
Molly and Bridget both nodded. "It was great to see you again, girls," said Minerva, giving them both quick hugs. "Now if I'm not mistaken, Mr. Weasley is outside waiting for you, Molly."  
Molly grinned at Minerva. "See you tomorrow, Min--I mean, Professor!" She and Bridget ran out of the classroom, Bridget waving as she left. Minerva smiled as they left, then went up to her office to write a letter to Eileen.  
"Wait until Eileen hears about this," Minerva said to herself, sitting down with her ink and parchment, a smile on her face. She could tell that this teaching business wouldn't be so bad after all. 


End file.
